announced that their Suter TOA288 24hp UAV engine was selected by Volansi to provide propulsion for their VOLY M20 and VOLY 50 Series Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) drones.
Volansi is a supplier of aerial drone logistics services for customers in the defense, commercial, and humanitarian markets. Volansi VTOL aircraft are designed for long endurance, heavy payloads and to perform in challenging environments, providing surveillance as well as essential parts and supplies to the field.
Volansi has been flying the Voly M20 and 50 Series with Suter’s TOA288 engine. Both the Voly M20 and the 50 Series utilize eight electric motors for the VTOL portion of its flight and the Suter TOA288 engine provides forward flight propulsion and power generation. The Voly M20 can carry 20 pounds of cargo and the 50 Series can carry up to 50 pounds of cargo providing a low footprint runway independent cargo delivery solution for civil and defense applications.
The Suter TOA288 is a twin cylinder, horizontal opposed, air cooled, two cycle engine, with fuel saving electronic engine management system and a 1kW starter/generator. Displacement is 288cm3. Power: 17.5kW (24HP) @6500rpm. The engine was a design collaboration between CAE GmbH and Suter Industries combining CAE’s 25 years of manned & unmanned 2-stroke engine experience with Suter’s over 25 years of 2-stroke motorcycle racing design & manufacturing experience. The result is a high performance, reliable, world class UAV engine currently produced in Switzerland.
Dietrich Kehe, CEO and founder of CAE GmbH said,
“We are excited to be working with Volansi to optimize our Suter TOA288 engine to meet the aircraft thrust, fuel economy, reliability and durability requirements to expand their product capabilities.” Eskil Suter, CEO of Suter Industries went on to say, “We are able to utilize our world class manufacturing & testing facility to provide development and production engines very quickly to Volansi and we look forward to supporting the production demand for this engine.”
“Volansi needed a reliable 24hp UAV engine to meet growing demand for our cargo delivery drones and we turned to Suter/CAE for a solution,” said Steve Morris, VP of Aircraft Engineering for Volansi. “We have been flying this new engine for over a year and are very happy with the results allowing us to meet payload, reliability and endurance requirements while also allowing opportunities for further product enhancements over time including heavy fuel capability.”
About Suter Industries:Suter Industries’ roots go back to motorcycle racing era of the 1990s. Eskil Suter was a successful Grand Prix racing driver and founded the Suter Racing company in 1996. The company is known for their “SuterClutch” and other products for the motorcycle racing market including high-performance engines, motorcycles and various components. In 2015, Suter Racing launched a four-cylinder two-stroke racing machine with the worldwide exclusive Suter500, which was developed completely in-house. Since 2002 Suter Industries applied the expertise gained from engine development to other areas of relevance in vehicle, aviation and defense industries. About CAE GmbH:CAE GmbH is lead by Dietrich Kehe who is a mechanical engineer with over 24 years’ experience in manned and unmanned 2-stroke aircraft engines. He received his engineering degree with a focus on combustion engines from the University of Hochschule für Technik – Esslingen (Stuttgart, Germany area). Dietrich has developed clean sheet engine designs for advanced UAV applications utilizing advanced electronic fuel injection (including direct injection) technology. These solutions are flying on some of the world’s most advanced UAV applications. CAE GmbH has teamed with Suter to develop world class UAV engines for the global market.About Volansi:Volansi is the leader in aerial drone logistics services for customers in the defense, commercial, and humanitarian markets. Volansi VTOL aircraft are designed for long endurance, heavy payloads and to perform in challenging environments, providing surveillance as well as essential parts and supplies to the field. About UAV Propulsion Tech:Schmidt Products, LLC (dba UAV Propulsion Tech) is a privately held US company that markets global UAV technology into the defense and commercial UAV markets, and is the US representative for Suter Industries.
Source: Press Release